Solaredge on Octopus IOF

NedS

@Qyburn please let us know how it goes.

As soon as the sun returns, I'll be handing my Tesla over to IOF, probably at the end of this month. We are still importing more than we generate atm due to lack of sun and relatively high heat pump usage.

Qyburn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81906722#Comment_81906722

This is just the first day with Octopus in control. I've been using Homeassistant to control the system up till now. I've disabled my automations, no point in fighting with Octopus, but the Modbus connection is still enabled so that I can see exactly what they're doing.

They change a lot of parameters. Some seem a rather cackhanded way of achieving their aim. For example at the start of peak period they were still forcing Storage Command Mode to "Charge from Solar Power and Grid" which seems just wrong, but setting Storage Charge Limit to zero so it has no actual effect.

Later into the peak period it switched to discharging to grid, with rate of discharge being varied between 500 and 5000W. Presumably to match their requirements. Strangely (to me) they contolled this by setting Storage Discharge Limit, rather than export limit. Meaning that when set to 550W discharge, the house was importing when more than 550W was needed, even though there was plenty in the battery.

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81906873#Comment_81906873

That's interesting how they control the battery.

I'd not really considered it, but of course each battery maker will have their own API with different features available. For example, I'm not aware of any mechanism to control the rate of discharge for export to the grid on the PW3 - it will simply empty the battery at full throttle to the limitation of the inverter (up to 11.04kW) and/or site export limit (it's either exporting or it's not).

Qyburn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81907008#Comment_81907008

Many of those settings aren't normally visible, for example in the Solaredge app or monitoring web page. I'm reading it locally, directly from the inverter. These are the configuration settings visible. Not in any sort of logical order.

When I took that screenshot it had been set to charge from solar and grid, but charge rate limit set to zero so it's not actually charging ..

NedS

I guess it was interesting from my PoV as you may see behaviour that I haven't because Octopus are able to get your battery to behave in ways that isn't possible with my battery, and vice versa. Which makes it difficult (or at least less accurate) when folks ask do Octopus ever do this or that and someone answers that they've never seen that, because it may be something that isn't technically possible with one battery but is with another.

So I guess we shouldn't read too much into people's experiences of IOF when they have a different battery make/model.